SURFEIT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does surfeit mean? 

• SURFEIT (noun)
  The noun SURFEIT has 3 senses:

1. the state of being more than full

2. the quality of being so overabundant that prices fall

3. eating until excessively full

  Familiarity information: SURFEIT used as a noun is uncommon.

• SURFEIT (verb)
  The verb SURFEIT has 2 senses:

1. supply or feed to surfeit

2. indulge (one's appetite) to satiety

  Familiarity information: SURFEIT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SURFEIT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The state of being more than full

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

excess; overabundance; surfeit

Hypernyms ("surfeit" is a kind of...):

fullness (the condition of being filled to capacity)

Derivation:

surfeit (indulge (one's appetite) to satiety)

surfeit (supply or feed to surfeit)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of being so overabundant that prices fall

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

glut; oversupply; surfeit

Hypernyms ("surfeit" is a kind of...):

overabundance; overmuch; overmuchness; superabundance (a quantity that is more than what is appropriate)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Eating until excessively full

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

repletion; surfeit

Hypernyms ("surfeit" is a kind of...):

eating; feeding (the act of consuming food)

Derivation:

surfeit (indulge (one's appetite) to satiety)

surfeit (supply or feed to surfeit)

• SURFEIT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they surfeit    ... he / she / it surfeits   
Past simple: surfeited   
Past participle: surfeited   
-ing form: surfeiting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Supply or feed to surfeit

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

cloy; surfeit

Hypernyms (to "surfeit" is one way to...):

furnish; provide; render; supply (give something useful or necessary to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

surfeit (eating until excessively full)

surfeit (the state of being more than full)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Indulge (one's appetite) to satiety

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "surfeit" is one way to...):

indulge; luxuriate (enjoy to excess)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

surfeit (eating until excessively full)

surfeit (the state of being more than full)

 Context examples 

I'm sick of the sight of this, and there's no reason you should all die of a surfeit because I've been a fool, cried Amy, wiping her eyes.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Arraigned at my own bar, Memory having given her evidence of the hopes, wishes, sentiments I had been cherishing since last night—of the general state of mind in which I had indulged for nearly a fortnight past; Reason having come forward and told, in her own quiet way a plain, unvarnished tale, showing how I had rejected the real, and rabidly devoured the ideal;—I pronounced judgment to this effect:—That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life; that a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed poison as if it were nectar.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)